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Stalin and the USSR
Getting power
• Returned from exile after February Revolution, became editor of Pravda.
• Commisar for Nationalities, then commander during Civil War, then General Secretary of
the Communist Party.
• Lenin died – struggle for power between Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Gregory Zinoviev,
and Stalin.
◦ Stalin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev allied against Trotsky.
◦ Lenin's damning comments about Stalin not made public.
• Disagreements about how to industrialise Russia's backward economy.
◦ Trotsky believed that the only way was to have Permanent Revolution in other countries.
◦ Some believed that rapid industrialisation was impossible.
◦ Stalin believed in Socialism in One Country.
• Stalin wins, his theory was adopted as party policy.
◦ Trotsky removed from power, and later exiled.
◦ Kamenev and Zinoviev later expelled, but later again taken back.
Socialism in One Country
• Stalin believed they could no longer rely on worldwide revolution.
• Instead, they had to do 100 years of industrialisation in 10.
• He ended the New Economic Policy.
◦ Destroyed ALL elements of private enterprise.
◦ Collectivisation.
◦ Five-Year Plans (3 – the last was cut short due to German invasion).
Propaganda
• Necessary to achieve rapid change.
• Newspapers, radio, cinema, writers, artists all tightly controlled and all glorified Stalin.
• Five-Year Plan targets declared over-fulfilled, cult of personality developed around Stalin.
◦ Towns were named after him.
◦ Statues, poems, plays, novels in his honour.
◦ Known as 'vohd', given ridculous titles like 'Brilliant Genius of Humanity'.
◦ History rewritten to give Stalin a bigger role in the revolution esp. at expense of Trotsky.
Industrialisation
• Plans emphasised unrealistic goals for coal and iron (330% expansion in heavy industry).
• New industrial centres were built:
◦ Iron and steel works, car and tractor factories, ag. machinery, oil refineries.
◦ Massive steelworks at Magnitogorsk.
• Public works (hailed as successes, but built using slave labour – lots died):
◦ White Sea-Baltic Canal (turned out to be too shallow), railway, hydroelectric dam,
Moscow Underground.
• Results:
◦ Impressive increase in output of heavy industry (incl. electricity).
◦ Widespread shortages of consumer goods and food, rationing.
◦ Terror used when targets weren't met.
▪ Managers accused of sabotage, workers severely disciplined for minor offences.
◦ Also rewarded with high wages, praise of hard work.
◦ Bearable because work, schooling, and free basic health care were provided.
◦ Diseases (malaria, typhus, cholera) were tackled.
◦ More careers were open to women, and day care centres were set up.
◦ Many in the West looked to USSR as inspiration.
◦ USSR became industrially self-sufficient and one of the most powerful in the world.
Stalin and the USSR
Collectivisation
• Transforming Soviet agriculture from individual farms to large state collective farms
(kolkhoz), each with 50-100 families working on it.
• Aim was to make farming more efficient – could sustain urban population.
• Man-made famine:
◦ Peasants resisted, and Stalin responded with terror (focus on kulaks – wealthy peasants).
◦ Deported 5 million to gulags, defeated peasants with troops, used famine.
▪ Raised Ukraine's grain quota by 44%.
▪ Members of farms not allowed to have grain themselves before fulfulling the quota.
▪ Death toll of about 6 million (although it is disputed).
• Results:
◦ Huge human cost – about 10 million.
◦ Disaster from ag. point of view – decline in livestock.
◦ Increased mechanisation, things eventually recovered.
Purges/Great Terror
• Stalin became paranoid about opposition – also, this way he could blame failures on traitors.
• Triggered by murder of Sergei Kirov (ally of Stalin, but he won more votes than him).
◦ Almost certainly murdered by Stalin, who then used his murder as an excuse.
• NKVD arrested millions (vast majority innocent), led to atmosphere of fear.
◦ Informers everywhere – neighbours, your own children.
• Minorities, religious people, industrial managers targeted – but esp. Old Bolsheviks
(members of party before revolution), whom Stalin saw as rivals.
• Stalin appointed Yezhov, who intensified it. Stalin later blamed him, then shot him for it.
• People either shot or (majority) sent to gulags (e.g. Kolyma).
◦ Gulags provided slave labour to help industrialisation.
▪ Public works, mining.
◦ Harsh conditions, inadequate food, severe weather, torture.
◦ Many died.
• Death toll:
◦ Kremlin went to great lengths to cover it up - they concealed censuses by shooting
entire board of staff.
◦ But even the revised census showed 15 million deaths.
◦ Mass graves are still found to this day.
Stalin – an assessment
• He made Russia a world power (both industrially and by his success in war).
• Many Russians today still see him as a great war leader.
Case Study: Show Trials (see other notes)
Stalinist State at War
• Stalin initially feared Hitler's growing power and looked for allies against him. However,
France and Britain were wary of communism and thought the USSR was weak.
• The Germans took advantage and offered a deal.
◦ Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact state that the two countries wouldn't attack each
Stalin and the USSR
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other.
▪ It divided Poland between them, and promised the USSR land it had lost in 1918.
Germany invades Russia – Operation Barbarossa.
◦ Hitler decided to do this as he failed in the Battle of Britain.
◦ 3 million German soldiers.
◦ Initially a success as purges had depleted the Red Army – in some places, Germans were
welcomed as liberators.
Stalin refused to believe that Hitler would attack, despite being warned – he was shocked.
◦ He appealed to traditional Russian patriotism.
◦ Eased persecution of the Orthodox Church to get its support against the Germans.
◦ Scorched earth policy.
◦ Partisan units were formed behind German lines to wage guerilla campaign.
◦ Order No. 270 prohibited surrender – punishment: killed on the spot, families subject to
arrest and gulags.
▪ NKVD waited behind and shot anyone retreating.
Total war – all resources directed towards victory.
◦ Millions of workers and 2,500 factories were moved to the east, out of German reach.
◦ Tankograd – used to make tractors, now tanks.
◦ Conditions for ordinary Russians were very harsh.
▪ Men, 18-50, were conscripted (also 1 million women).
▪ Women made up half of factory workers and 3/4 of collective farmers.
▪ Workers lived in poorly constructed, cold barracks.
▪ Very small food rations.
▪ All holidays and leave were cancelled – offenders sent to gulags.
Russians motivated by cruelty of Germans – shot 100,000s POWs, attacked civilians.
Russians begin to win.
◦ Germans couldn't deal with the cold, Stalin stopped interfering in military decisionmaking – good generals developed better tactics.
◦ Turning point: Russians win at Stalingrad.
◦ Then, at Kursk. Then they went on the offensive.
◦ They drove the Germans out and continued into Europe.
◦ In Germany, they behaved with great brutality. They captured Berlin by May.
Stalin's crimes.
◦ He deported anyone of suspect nationality, carried out wide-scale executions (Katyn
Forest – killed Polish officers).
◦ Declared the 1 million recovered Soviet POWs as traitors – shot or sent to gulags.
Contribution to Allied success:
◦ This decided the outcome of WWII – made Allied invasion of France and Germany
possible.
◦ Russia had 26 million dead (10 million were soldiers).
USSR NOW A LEADING WORLD POWER. NEXT... THE COLD WAR.
Exam Questions:
• 2013: How did Stalin transform the Soviet economy and/or use show trials to consolidate
his power?
• 2012: What were the main characteristics of Stalin's rule in Russia?
• 2011: To what extent did Lenin and/or Stalin bring about social and economic change?
• 2010: How effective were the internal and external policies of Josef Stalin?
• 2009: How did dictators use propaganda and/or terror to maintain their power?
• 2008: What did Lenin and Stalin contribute to communism in Russia?
• 2007: How significant was the role played by the Soviet Union in World War II?
• 2006: To what extent did Stalin transform the society and economy of the Soviet Union?
Stalin and the USSR
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Sample Paper: How successful were Stalin in Russia and/or Mussolini in Italy in using the
personality cult as an instrument of propaganda?